10th Jul 2010, 16:44

I bought mine second hand, as my first bike. At 6'5" I was having trouble finding a bike tall enough to be comfortable. The bike was top heavy, but easier to manage with long legs. The tall tank with the tank bag was super comfy for long distances, in the body-welded-to-bike riding position.

Drove it from Victoria to Quebec city on the Canadian side on my first major tour, and back again through Kansas and Denver. Beautiful trip on a fresh set of Metzlers. Only time I was scared was crossing streetcar tracks in downtown Toronto on a multiple lane left turn, with the cars around me a lot less concerned about lane maintenance that I was.

Opened it up on the freshly constructed Coquihalla with a black Nissan pop can trail breaking a mile or two ahead of me. Gained on the long climbs, lost ground on the descent. He was really hauling, because I was pinned. Steady as a rock.

At one point crossing BC a truck had lost a chunk of greenhouse plastic, which initially looked like a heat mirage. Barely decided to make the lane change in time. That slowed me down for a long time.

Later had a buddy on the back and opened it up a bit on the freshly restored Cowichan. It really wallowed in a long sweeping turn, settling almost to the bottom of the shocks. Sitting low was OK, but the shocks decompressing coming out of the turn gave me the heebs and I didn't repeat that again.

It was a bit hard to handle at low speed. There was a lowish speed where neither steering tactic was passable, or at least I never mastered it.

The guy was right about the sweet spot at 6500. Flew across Saskatchewan at 140 kph like it wasn't even there. Smokey lived under the overpasses, and there were darn few of those to watch for. The Trans-Canada was single lane then for long distances across the prairies. It was summer and all the RVs were stuck behind strings of 18-wheelers. Not me. Drop a gear and gun and you pass a pair of 18-wheelers like it was a regular passing move.

Had a friend's nephew restore the bike after I returned to BC. The kid was great, extremely mechanical. After he fixed it back up, it was a beauty. Then he let a friend of his give it a toot on the long driveway, the kid didn't have the same instinct for torque. Lifted the front wheel off the line and wrapped it around the nearest tree. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, but my friend's parents are a little less friendly with me than before, for dropping mephisto into their lap.

I lifted the front wheel once by accident myself, on a cold Christmas holiday morning when the throttle decided not to respond normally after I pulled into an intersection. Gave it a bit of a goose and it caught fire throwing me backward like a rodeo cowboy. I'm hanging onto the throttle by my fingertips, rolled wide open, waving my hat behind me with my clutch hand. Red-lined in first gear before I found the abdominal strength to regain the upright position. The bike had torque. Good thing I had some open road or I would have crawled up someone's pipe.

17th Jul 2010, 20:40

As the original poster, I'm quite pleased to see all the positive comments that have been added. Funny that there was one guy who thought the bike was terrible and an example of Honda's "bad" engineering from the 80s. Everyone else is singing its praises.

Anyway, since my original post I have emigrated to Perth, Western Australia and brought my CX with me. I put it up for sale before leaving Vancouver, and had a couple of serious lookers, but no money came forth. As the bike had sat for about ten years, it needed the brakes sorted out, new tires and a battery. So I decided that after a certain date, if it hadn't sold, then I was going to make the repairs and bring it with me.

I'd rebuilt the rear master cylinder a couple of years ago, but all the calipers now were seized, so I removed them and took them in to Cypress Motorbikes in Delta, BC. No parts were needed! They just freed them up and I reinstalled them. I then dropped in a new battery and took the bike back for new tires. I've always liked Bridgestones (original equipment) and have gone back to them. They have a nice predicable feel.

So, after a lot of money given to Australian customs after the crate arrived in Fremantle (but that is another story), I am now enjoying the back road sweepers of Western Australia, where I can ride all through the winter. The bike is pretty rare here on the west coast, and I've already had an offer from a local Honda dealer.

After almost 27 years, the fork seals have finally given up and the forks are now in the shop, but I should be back on the road soon.

Glad to hear that so many people love this bike. I periodically check craigslist in Vancouver and noticed that there is an 84 CX650E going for $2750. It looks in good shape in the photo.

22nd Sep 2010, 17:51

I now own two of these bikes. At 40k miles, the starter clutch, cam chain, and stator all crapped out. Both bikes. This is a definite issue to the CX650 engine. I have also blown the head gaskets on one CX650E, and one GL650I with 40k miles.

As these bikes age, there are problems.

That being said, I love the bike, and would wouldn't change it for the world.

Exceptionally easy to work on, I have dropped and swapped one engine for a quadruple bypass, and have dropped and am in the process of rebuilding another. As long as the main bearings and rings hold up, the 650 engines can be maintained pretty much indefinitely (if your oil rings fail, you can use an Audi Oil ring, part number is 034 86 ND - you will have to take the piston to a shop to have the slot widened, but this works).

To the poster from 2009 who asked about Motad exhausts:

The Motad engineers are not full of crap when they say you do not have to rejet... you really DO NOT have to rejet.